...Prart…

For a moment, Neia felt the urge to fall in worship before the sky that the Sorcerer King might see and hear her, but confronted with the enormity of the aid he had dispatched to her, she chose the ultimate act of worship… action in his name. "Lord Momon, I'm very grateful that you're here." Neia pulled herself together and let her face become a mask.

"Things are feeling different today, and I trust my gut, so let me fill you in on what I can. Where we are is the main south gate, this position is very well defended because we're facing the combined command teams from both the Slane Theocracy and Remedios Custodio, we're outnumbered by two to one in terms of quantity of soldiers, however exempting the elites among them, our overall quality is higher.

"Quantity, however, is its own quality. I believe I can hold here, but there is a danger that they may break through one of the other gates where we have to rely more heavily on militia, mercenaries, or other irregulars. It does no good to hold the south gate if we lose the north gate." She said patiently, bearing in mind that he was not known as a strategist.

"I understand, you're worried that they'll break through in one position and cause all others to collapse by outflanking and surrounding you, thus allowing Suchala to destroy you in detail." He said thoughtfully.

"Y-Yes, that's it exactly." Neia said, her neutral mask slipping briefly with a show of surprise.

"So you want me to station myself at the weakest gate and keep them off your backs." He concluded.

"Yes, you're an ace that we're dealing from the bottom of the deck, I fully expect the worst attack to be where I am. The hatred Remedios bears for me, and if the Theocracy is as bad as they say, Suchala probably shares it. They will make killing me a priority."

Neia paused her narrative to make a proud, preening expression. "I'm confident I can handle anything they can throw at me as long as I have CZ," CZ waved and then resumed her ready position, "Skana, Lakyus and Ulthis, there shouldn't be a problem here."

Neia gestured to the east and to the west. "The rest of Blue Rose and some of our other elites are covering the east and west gates, but those are lightly manned positions and I think they intend to just make sure we don't come out there to outflank them." Neia explained further.

"I see." Momon said plainly, "I will hold the wall no matter what happens!" He declared, drew his sword and saluted dramatically.

"Ah… yes, I have no doubt you will, Lord Momon." Neia said confidently, covering her surprise at his over the top reaction.

"Can… can I ask you a personal question? Would that be OK, Lord Momon?" Neia asked, biting her lip and looking a little uncomfortable.

"If you wish, though I cannot promise to answer." He replied seriously.

"You've worked under Lord Ainz for years, correct?" She asked.

"I have, but that is hardly personal." He pointed out.

"Has he… has he ever talked about me?" Neia said hopefully.

"Yes, he spoke very highly of you on several occasions. Few humans impress him to any degree, and the degree to which you have devoted yourself to his will reminded him of his closest guardians, the very children of his friends whom he provides for." Momon said casually.

"They're… they're like his children, aren't they?" Neia asked, reflecting on all she had observed.

"An apt statement." He replied.

"I… envy them that way." Neia said with a kind of longing smile.

She went quiet for a moment, "There was more I wanted to know, but… no, maybe after all this is over. Go ahead and head to the North wall. I've got things covered here." She said calmly.

Momon's dramatic salute came out again, and he quickly departed.

"I had no idea that he had a flair for the dramatics." Neia muttered under her breath.

...Nazarick…

Ainz struggled against the urge to facepalm as he watched. Demiurge had joined himself and Sebas, and it was almost a relief to the Sorcerer King when the towers moved and provided a distraction from the antics of Pandora's Actor.

Demiurge had a smile of awe on his face. "To plan in such detail such an outcome… I am truly in awe." The archdemon said.

"What do you mean, Lord Demiurge?" Sebas asked, much to the relief of Ainz.

"Neia is about to break, of course, and possibly die as a result." He answered.

Ainz said nothing. 'What is he talking about?' He wondered.

"She is?" Sebas asked, doubtfully.

"Yes of course, do you see that platform being pushed behind the tower with the people tied to stakes?" Demiurge pointed to the wheeled construction.

"Yes…" Sebas said uncertainly.

"The one in the middle there, the one who is somewhat overweight, his name is Tinamoc. Earlier Neia killed a number of her followers to spare them pain, but while they were followers, Tinamoc is a very good friend, doing so will… well, just watch." Demiurge said patiently.

...Prart…

The towers began to move, and Neia smiled with satisfaction, "Come on, come on." She said as her breath deepened and her fingers twitched with anticipation.

They had a few minutes, but not long, so she turned behind her to face the city. "Servants of the Sorcerer King, followers of Queen Calca, we have little time, so I will make this quick. You come to the fight today hoping to see heroes carry the day, but I tell you that if you wish to see heroes, you need only look at yourselves! Behind you are the weak, the aged, the elderly, the sick, and before you are people coming to kill them. You put yourselves in the way! That makes you heroes! That is where we are, on the heroes' ground! That is when we are! In an age of heroes! Remember your justice, remember why you are here, and even IF you fall, your will, shall be carried on! Now ready arms and prepare to fight!"

A tingle ran through every spine as the evangelist hammered the heroes light into the bodies of her followers, no man or woman under arms felt death caress their hearts, their fingers held weapons without tension, as if they were prepared for a stroll in the summer, instead of a fight in the winter of their lives.

The towers crossed the extreme range markers. "Mangonels! Loose!" She shouted.

In the distance she saw mages summoning angels. "Magic casters! Summon angels!" She shouted over her shoulder, the order was carried back, and angels rose to fight angels. One of the towers went down, struck by a mangonel's massive boulder. She wondered how many died in that moment, but brushed it aside while she waited for them to come into range of her bow.

"CZ, you can fire whenever you're ready, you don't have to wait for me." Neia said calmly as she took her bow out. CZ's answer was to make a head explode out the back of itself.

"Nice shot." Neia said calmly. CZ did not break her concentration, though she lifted a hand away briefly to render a thumbs up to her comrade, before repeating the feat on another unfortunate soul.

"Draw!" Neia shouted, and bows were nocked with arrows. She looked briefly to the other walls, fierce fighting was resounding at the northern gate, but the east and west were quiet.

"Loose!" She shouted, and arrows flew from runic and common bows alike. For a few wonderful moments the flights of arrows filled the air until at last they came raining down, robbing soldiers of their lives.

"Fire at will!" She shouted. Then Neia's bow began to reap a deadly toll as she coldly and calculatingly decided who should die in that moment.

Unsurprisingly, many were using the siege towers as cover, but such was the size of the advance that not everybody could do so. Another tower went down.

Something felt wrong, very wrong, she couldn't put her finger on it right away, but a feeling of dread was welling up in her that was not the norm. She put it out of her mind as she ended another life, but every time it was pushed out, it pushed its way back in.

The angels were clashing overhead, some made it past her own and began to engage the walls, from her position at the tower she made a tempting target she was sure, and that was when it hit her. That was what was eating at her, nobody was targeting 'her' they surely knew she was here, she knew she was a priority target, so why…?

The answer was not long in coming as her enemies drew to within ninety feet of the walls, she watched as from behind one of the towers that still stood, a platform was pushed out into view. Her first thought was that it was a weapon's platform of some odd design, only to realize how wrong, and right, she truly was.

On that platform were a handful of prisoners bound naked to cross beams. "Human shields?" She said under her breath, "How loathsome, but… she should… know… bet-" She began to add and then cut off her words in mid sentence.

"Tinamoc!" She shouted in shock as she recognized the one in the center.

"No!" She bit her lip as her voice echoed out across the field. A horn blew from beyond the wall, and ranks made room for a woman to step into view, a woman Neia recognized from her nightmares and memories alike.

The arrows stopped, the towers stopped, the angels drew back, her own side, mystified by this sudden behavior, began to freeze as well.

"Neia Baraja! Does this man look familiar?!" Remedios Custodio shouted as she drew her sword.

Neia's mind raced. 'How did she get him? Where did she get him? I sent him away from the city for his safety, he knew to choose the most obscure road, her entire army was coming here, we didn't…' She thought all these things before the realization hit. "Astraka." She said with her teeth gritted angrily. "Damn it all to hell!" She spat the words out.

"I'm sure that isn't the only thing you remember!" Remedios shouted, and she shoved her sword into Tinamoc's forearm, wrenching a scream from him.

"No, no…" Neia whispered softly, "Is this a punishment? I killed my followers, so now I have to kill my friend?"

Her hands clenched her bow as she reached for an arrow instinctively.

"How about when I did this to you?!" Remedios shouted, and shoved her sword through his leg. "Do you still think about it? Dream about the way I almost killed you last time?! Perhaps a few more will refresh your memory!" The fallen paladin was in a frenzy, Neia's eyes were wide and unblinking as she pulled the arrow from sheer muscle memory and drew it back.

Tinamoc looked up at her from where he hung, his eyes, she'd always remember those. Sharp and clever in his business dealings, the way they danced when he would tell a joke, the way they were hard when he was serious, the way they shone when he was curious. Of all the merchant's she'd ever known, he was the one who exemplified every virtue a man of his class should have, at least in her eyes.

Neia couldn't see her target anymore, everything was a blur, but that didn't matter. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" She said as the bow reached its maximum draw. Remedios had not stopped shouting the entire time.

"I made your pope bleed and crawl! I made her suffer! She's a traitor who kills her own people! Throw her down and keep your own lives!" Remedios harangued them relentlessly.

"Snake shot." Neia said with a bitter, mournful voice.

The arrow lanced out when she dropped her hold on the arrow, and it flew out, piercing first one prisoner, then the other, right through the chest, then looping around to pierce Tinamoc, straight through the heart. He slumped forward, his pain ended.

...Then, within her, something snapped.

"REMEDIOS!" Neia shouted, but not with a voice like any the fallen paladin knew, it reverberated, echoed, and hit her like a hammer did soft, heated metal.

The 'cracks' that had been building in Neia's eyes, broke entirely, they went completely black.

That was when the rumbling began, it started where she stood, it began to radiate outwards, it forced her to her knees, she gritted her teeth hard enough that it seemed they might crack.

"No…" Neia said, even her whisper reverberating, the entirety of her wall's defenders were forced to their knees.

"No… it can't be… it absolutely cannot be…" Lakyus said as she struggled to raise her head. The rumbling had hit the entire wall, threatening to collapse it.

"No... there... there!" Neia thought as she struggled desperately to command this unforeseen shift. Her body was rattling, but the pressure and rumbling moved away from the walls... towers crumbled like toothpick sculptures.

"What…" Remedios started to ask, not understanding just what was happening as the towers fell to scrap and her soldiers began to kneel and struggle to stand, then had the question answered when she was knocked to her knees in turn.

The rumbling became a roar, the roar became a storm as hearts quaked.

They knew this pressure very well, and it was not from Neia.

CZ, laying flat as she had been, did not move at all, but she did say, "Stop, if you wish to live." While unaware that Neia had no idea how to stop even if she wished to.

Skana snapped her head over to look where her wife was atop the tower, just as soon as she was able, she might not have known 'what' just happened, but she knew where and to whom it had.

Lakyus had similar thoughts from her position, and they rushed as fast as they could to where Neia remained on bended knee, her jaw fell open in a reverberating scream of unutterable rage.

...Nazarick…

"As I said." Demiurge said rather proudly.

"I do not understand." Sebas said patiently.

"What I mean is, she's reached level five as an evangelist, and it comes with one particularly powerful skill." He said.

"What is that?" Sebas asked.

"Aura of the Divine. Countless lives have ended, both willingly and unwillingly, over the divinity of Lord Ainz, and she has spearheaded it all. By continuing to fight with both her words and her weapons, she has grown by leaps and bounds beyond what I ever thought she was capable of when first she caught our master's eye, but it appears once again he has shown me up. This skill of hers allows her to draw on the aura of the source of her faith, as if he were working through her, and look at what is happening." Demiurge said, and he gestured back to the viewer.

...Prart...

Pressure and terror, as if they faced the personal wrath of Ainz Ooal Gown, was being exhibited on those before the wall. They might have run if they could have moved, and Neia pushed her sword into the stone trying desperately to stabilize herself under the pressure that was ripping through her fragile human body, her demonic eyes filled with unquenchable wrath and seemed to glow with a terrible, holy light that shone all the more brightly for the blackness that engulfed her as the invisible pressure became visible and took on a dreadful darkness.

Neia had lost almost all sense of herself, she could feel her muscles tearing apart, but as bad as it was for her, she could still see through terrible eyes as the injuries grew among the army in front of her.

"I'll take you all with me!" She shouted, "Feel the wrath of my god!" She was dying, she knew it, she didn't care, not much anyway, she discarded CZ's council, she couldn't stop, this was a gift of wrath from her lord that would vanquish his enemies and preserve what was left of those she still held love for. 'I am the pope, responsible for all, if I'm to die for them, that is just my job.' She thought as she accepted her fate, though she hated that she would miss out on the post war life with Skana, the little future dreams where all years of glory were but distant memories, she trusted her wife would forgive her.

Groans and screams began to fill the field. Neia felt her shoulder become dislocated and another muscle tear.

She gazed to the heavens, it ached horribly to do even that much.

...Nazarick…

'I did not plan this.' Ainz thought as he watched blood began to come from Neia's flesh as her body was being ripped apart by a force she couldn't hope to contain.

"Will she die then?" Sebas asked with a kind of passive sadness.

Demiurge nodded, "Most definitely, as things are. Her wife and her friend are coming to her aid, and I see CZ has gotten up and is trying to shake her out of it, but as they get closer, see how they fall too? They can't touch her, all they can do is watch her be ripped apart as she draws on the power of our lord. But she'll destroy that entire army, there must be over a hundred thousand just at that wall, if they are turned into nothing but red stains on the snow, how long will the rest stick around? I must confess I envy Neia, to give her life to such a glorious pursuit as serving as a conduit for the last Supreme Being, to perish in his service is an honor, especially for a human." Demiurge touched his chin thoughtfully, "I wonder if we could make others like her, it would have been a worthwhile experiment."

Ainz was already standing up and moving as Neia's black eyes turned skyward as her flesh began to tear away from her bones, he wondered how long she'd have.

...Prart...

Neia could see CZ, Lakyus, and Skana, but was scarcely aware of their presence as they tried to come close to where she knelt. She knew felt her eyes change, though she couldn't see them for herself, she had a feeling that even if she could turn her face to look at them, they wouldn't see her expression of farewell. She wondered how much longer she'd have before she was peeled down to nothing but bones, as the force continued to pour out of her.

In the back of her mind, there had been a part of her whimpering at the pain, telling her to stop, at least when it first hit, but now she had passed beyond it, she had passed beyond flesh, there was only her duty to the last, the pain was nothing, the whimper snuffed out like a candle as soon as she realized that she had become a weapon of the divine, but one thing did come to mind, one small sentence managed to pass her lips.

"Goodbye… father." She managed to utter as she tried to hold enough control to crush the force in front of her, but it was not her human father she was thinking of.

"Not goodbye." A voice said and she felt a grip on her shoulder that could only come from the fleshless.

As if ripping her soul back from the edge of death, Ainz pulled her from her kneeling position and back into his arms, cradling her as one might a child and breaking the grip his power held on her. Her shredded arm hung limp beyond his hold and she looked up at the red orbs that served as his eyes.

As the power cut off, her friends could rise to their feet as the wave swept out undirected and wild beyond the wall until it vanished.

Neia barely had the strength to smile up at him, "Am I dying now?." She asked.

"I would not have it so." Ainz said, and Lakyus fumbled for a healing potion and cut off further words by forcing it between Neia's lips and pouring it down her throat.

Skana, grabbed Neia's face in her hands and held firm, watching as the healing potion did its work and her many injuries faded away.

CZ looked over the wall, she looked for heat signatures indicating life, she saw many a fading temperature indicating a recent death.

Neia held Skana's gaze and managed to utter one word. "Now."

Skana immediately read the mind of the commander of Black Justice. "Go! Now!" Skana shouted, she drew her sword and pointed beyond the wall.

"Tear them down! Unleash the undead! Unleash the angels! Unleash the cavalry! Unleash your WRATH!" The Vice Commander was not one to fail to heed her own advice, and as if snapped out of a dream, the gates were swiftly opened and on the stunned, fallen, and weakened numbers, the soldiers of Black Justice, the Sons of Iontariil, the Vines, the Blood Miners, began to empty out into the open snow covered ground.

They moved like gods of war, angels of death, goddesses of chaos against the fragile order, war cries and bloodlust made of flesh and blood, the tumult spilled forth from beyond the wall like water through a dam that could no longer hold back the depths. In this way they came, to sweep away the old world like a flood, and cleanse the sacred field of battle with an offering to their god.

The wall began to empty, and Ainz took from his pocket dimension a single green potion.

"You need to rest, but don't want to rest." Ainz said to Neia, she nodded. "Here. Remedios Custodio is still very much alive, go and fix that." He said, "She belongs to you now."

She drank the stamina potion and felt vigor start to return to her body.

"I will give you her head before this day has ended." Neia vowed as the Sorcerer King set her gently down.

"Thank you for coming for me…" Neia said as she took her bow out again.

"You called me 'father'. Who could bear to be called such and not come to the rescue of one who cherishes him so?" Ainz said nobly.

Neia wanted to cry with happiness that he let her use that word with him and did not rebuke her for the presumption, he even seemed 'happy' about it.

She covered the redness in her face and in her eyes by turning to the field. "CZ, where is Remedios?" Neia asked as she looked at the chaos, the melee was in full swing, Neia's heart felt like it was beating ten thousand times a minute and the blackness did not vanish from her eyes.

"There." CZ said, and pointed at the direction that Skana was moving.

"Then there is where I belong." Neia said and after quickly securing a rope around a part of the battlement's stonework, she secured it to an arrow and fired into the battle line, piercing the breast of a horse clean through to the other side, throwing the rider as it collapsed. With the rope pulled taut, Neia jumped from the wall and slid down the length of it.

CZ opened fire as fast as she could, taking down anyone who appeared that they might be targeting the warrior pope as she flew over the field towards her target.

She dropped her grip on the rope and landed on the snow, where she rolled forward and sprang to her feet and found herself only a dozen yards away from Remedios Custodio.

"Remedios!" Neia shouted, her voice held so much force that it was not carried by the wind, rather the wind was carried by her voice, and the stunned face of her enemy turned to meet her own.

AN: Well a second double release day, and I'll be spending most of today writing, except for a few minor chores, and I'll have 2 more ready for you tomorrow, possibly 4 more depending on how long it takes and how many beta readers are digging in to the subject. I know some of you are probably upset with what just happened here, I guess that means as a writer, I did my job. I get very strongly attached to some characters though, so believe me it isn't always an easy thing to do. Next chapter is something you've waited for, for quite some time, and thanks to the generous donations to charity by readers, nobody has to wait for it. Next chapter is being posted within five minutes time from this one, thanks to the time it takes to format manually. If you don't see it right away, well wait a little bit, you know how FFN is.